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Theres only three MWs out there that can beat Franklin. Silva, Belfort, and Sonnen. But I don't see anyone else there who could take him. Franklin should just drop down and win out instead of getting ragdolled at LHW again.

I would like to see Rich fighting at 185 again. He would be more competitive at 185. The thing is that he would never get the title shot. Dana himself has said he has zero interest in seeing Silva vs. Franklin 3, because the first two were so one sided. I don't see Franklin ever getting the title shot at 205 so I really don't see what he has to lose by moving back to 185, he'll never fight for a belt again, he might as well just fight where he's more competitive and comfortable.

Ok fine whatever Roflcopter, just how you quoted me just to shoot me down like that with an 'unfounded like it's fact' comment...didn't like it.

Hm? Just sayin'.......Ms G. Rich isn't the fighter he was 4 years ago.

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Originally Posted by Squirrelfighter

I think an intelligent fighting Franklin at 185 has a legitimate shot. Silva is the far superior fighter, but as has always been said about Franklin, he's a gamer and he's versatile.

Outside of Sonnen, Okami, maybe Palhares, maybe Stann or Mayhem/Bisping, who else has a better shot at giving Silva a run for his money?

Guaranteed, if Franklin ever got anothe shot at Silva he'd train and shoot doubles like they were going out of style.

At 185 its an intriguing prospect, at 205, he'll be outmuscled and beat up by most of the division.

At this point there are about 5 guys that would be better title contenders than Rich.

As far as him training doubles. His wrestling sucks miserably. He took down Anderson once and Anderson got up easily. He also had no ability to clinch with Anderson which makes takedowns a lot harder if you aren't a great wrestler.

Anderson-Franklin III would probably be the most unwanted and unwarranted trilogy in the history of combat sports.

Those guys (Maia, Munoz) have a ton to fight for. Rich doesn't. He should and probably will retire soon, by choice or not.

Plus they are a lot younger than Rich.

Franklin still has a lot to fight for. I don't know what you're talking about.

And Maia & Munoz aren't a lot younger than him.

37 compared to 33 and 32?!

Using your argument, Anderson Silva should retire also.
Hmmm...Dan Henderson should have retired a while back.

Some people are saying: ""well, he's 3-3 in his last 6 fights. That's a bad record. A sign he should retire"

Let me give you another example: do you know who was on a 3-3 run, just over a year ago?! A 40 year old guy named Dan Henderson.

If i remember correctly, there were some voices calling for his retirement after he lost to Shields, his 3rd loss in 6 fights.

And look where Henderson is now.

No comment.

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

Stann would beat him. Sonnen would beat him easily. Okami would probably beat him this time out. Weidman would probably beat him.

Belfort would knock his head off again.

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

Well let's see.

Belfort already beat the shit out of Rich in a round.

Sonnen is a much better fighter than Rich and would simply wrestle him to the mat....which isn't a difficult thing to do in the first place since Rich has always been a bad wrestler...even Forrest played top control on him for most of their fight. Kudos with Weidman, who is actually a good deal bigger than Rich.

Rich at his peak beat an immature Okami..who is now on his peak while Rich is on the decline. Okami has also gotten considerably larger and probably would be much stronger and bigger than Rich in the cage.

And Stann is probably just a terrible terrible matchup for Rich, Stann is also bigger than Rich, has a granite chin and dynamite power. He'd eventually knock Rich stone cold, Rich has always had a below average chin.

LOL

You make it sound like it's something guaranteed...a done deal.

Using this logic, there would be no reason for 90% of the fights to take place.

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

Munoz and Maia are still fighting for money and their positions in the sport. Rich is already financial secure for life more than likely and probably won't make much more money than he already has...he could retire today and still be set. His position as the 2nd or third best MW ever isn't going anywhere, and he has no chance in hell at improving it, especially since he isn't fighting there anymore.

Secondly he'll be 37 the next time he fights...which is pretty damn old. He's had 35 fights on top of it, I'm pretty sure that's more than Munoz and Maia combined. Ton of injuries, been knocked out quite a few times.

He's still in shape yeah, and he could continue to fight, but there's no real reason for him to at this point.

Again...I don't get it.
Why is there no reason for him to continue fighting?!

He loves this sport and he's still very competitive.
He lost to pretty badly to Belfort, who is jut a horrible match up for him. Other than that, he lost a close decision to Henderson, who is on a roll.

And Griffin beat him because he was just to strong for him, therefore he got overpowered.
Griffin is one of the biggest LHWs out there.
No shame in that.

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

He'll never even be a top 10 fighter again, what's the point?

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

At this point there are about 5 guys that would be better title contenders than Rich.

Why are you saying he's not a TOP 10 fighter...if you're the one saying there are "about" 5 better contenders than him.

Champion + 5 contenders = TOP 6.

Wouldn't that make him 7th?! = TOP 10.

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Originally Posted by Roflcopter

As far as him training doubles. His wrestling sucks miserably. He took down Anderson once and Anderson got up easily. He also had no ability to clinch with Anderson which makes takedowns a lot harder if you aren't a great wrestler.

Anderson-Franklin III would probably be the most unwanted and unwarranted trilogy in the history of combat sports.

No one is saying Franklin should fight Anderson Silva.

But i've noticed a lot of people agreeing with Franklin moving back down to MW, because it's a weight that's more suited for him.

Today's LHW are too big for him unfortuntelly and he won't be able to erase the size advantage with his skills and experience.

At least at MW he won't start the fights with a disadvantage.
He will have much better chances of achieving something.

I will end this by saying this: some people seem to forget what a dominant MW Rich Franklin was, not so long ago.

He was 22-1 when he fough Silva the 1st time.
Before Silva, he basically cleaned out the MW division:

- he KO'd Rivera who was 8-2 atm
- he KO'd Shamrock in under 3 minutes in a LHW bout, just 2 fights after Shamrock lost to Tito in a Championship fight
- he KO'd Tanner twice. The first time he beat him, Tanner was 27-3 and on a 8-1 run (lost against Tito for the LHW title). The second time he took Tanner's title
- KO'd Quarry in the 1st and defended his MW title. Quarry was 8-1 at that moment
- dominated Loiseau, who was 14-4 and on a 5-0 run at that moment

Then...came Silva.

Do you know...Anderson Silva is the only guy to defeat Rich Franklin at MW?!

He also beat David "crow", Okami, and Mcdonald. At the time he was considered #1 or #2 in the world at MW (it was between him and Hendo in Pride). AS came and shook that up real quick to show who the real number 1 MW was and has beaten both Franklin and Hendo. Doesn't mean Franklin is trash cause AS has bascially done the same thing to the whole division. Franklin IMO would be a solid top ten and maybe even top 5 at MW.

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LOL at Franklin retiring... why? Because he got oversized by Griffin and outstruck by one of the best strikers in the sport? It's no secret that (apparently the only) guy who thinks he should retire also thinks Lesnar has done more for the sport (LULZ).

Anyhow, Rich would fare pretty well against the new face of the MW division. Win or lose, they would be competitive fights.

Lets not forget Rich got robbed of a decision to Hendo. Guys like Cro Cop, Nog, and Fedor are still fighting but a guy like Rich should retire? Ridiculous. Not unless he wanted to retire himself. Rich is a very competitive guy and I don't think he ever started this sport to be second best. I would completely understand if he decided to hang his gloves up. But for someone to make it sound like he's on such a decline he needs to hang his gloves up is a fallacy.

Edit: Not only that, but Rich was the last guy to trade somewhat successfully with A. Silva without threatening to take it to the ground. Rich landed some decent shots in that second fight and looked pretty good up until the last 30 seconds to a minute of the first round. Thats something no on has had as much success at since him.

LOL at Franklin retiring... why? Because he got oversized by Griffin and outstruck by one of the best strikers in the sport? It's no secret that (apparently the only) guy who thinks he should retire also thinks Lesnar has done more for the sport (LULZ).

Anyhow, Rich would fare pretty well against the new face of the MW division. Win or lose, they would be competitive fights.

Lets not forget Rich got robbed of a decision to Hendo. Guys like Cro Cop, Nog, and Fedor are still fighting but a guy like Rich should retire? Ridiculous. Not unless he wanted to retire himself. Rich is a very competitive guy and I don't think he ever started this sport to be second best. I would completely understand if he decided to hang his gloves up. But for someone to make it sound like he's on such a decline he needs to hang his gloves up is a fallacy.

Edit: Not only that, but Rich was the last guy to trade somewhat successfully with A. Silva without threatening to take it to the ground. Rich landed some decent shots in that second fight and looked pretty good up until the last 30 seconds to a minute of the first round. Thats something no on has had as much success at since him.

Anderson actually needed to fight to beat Rich. He couldn't just lay back and dance a passive victory like he did with some of the others. And Rich didn't recklessly through himself into death like Forest did. Theres a reason why Anderson said Rich was his greatest opponent.